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Sunday, November 2, 2014

Welcome our guest Hank Phillippi Ryan!!

Hank is the on-air investigative reporter for Boston's NBC affiliate. She's won 32 EMMYs, 12 Edward R. Murrow awards and dozens of other honors for her ground-breaking journalism. A bestselling author of seven mystery novels, Hank has won multiple prestigious awards for her crime fiction: three Agathas, the Anthony, Daphne, Macavity, and for THE OTHER WOMAN, the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. National reviews have called her a "master at crafting suspenseful mysteries" and "a superb and gifted storyteller." Her 2013 novel, THE WRONG GIRL, has the extraordinary honor of winning the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel and the Daphne Award for Mainstream Mystery/Suspense, and is a seven-week Boston Globe bestseller. Her newest hardcover, TRUTH BE TOLD, is a Library Journal Editor’s Pick and RT Book Reviews Top Pick, with starred reviews from Booklist and from Library Journal, which raves, “Drop everything and binge read!” She's a founding teacher at Mystery Writers of America University and 2013 president of national Sisters in Crime.

Thanksgiving
is coming! (You don’t need me to remind you, I know.) Every time I think of
Thanksgiving, I think of my mom. She taught us that turkey was best if it was
dry, not juicy. Seriously. I grew up thinking that juicy turkey was
undercooked.

Good going,
mom. Fooled us all these years. (I still prefer dry turkey. But that is another
blog.)

TRUTH BE
TOLD, there’s no such thing as a holiday for a reporter, so the last time Jane
Ryland (the lead character in my latest series) sat down to a fabulous holiday
dinner is—well, never.I know the
feeling. As a reporter for the last 40 years, I’m often working on Thanksgiving,
so all I get are the leftovers.

However!
Making something out of nothing is the hallmark of a good reporter—as well as a
good story-teller. And in this case, it’s especially wonderful if the “nothing”
includes wine and fresh mushrooms. And leftovers.

First, get
the leftovers from a roast turkey. (Okay, I know this may be a problem. If
you’re doing Thanksgiving, it’s easy. If not, get some turkey. But it can’t be
sliced deli turkey. It’s got to be authentic turkey that a real person actually
cooked.)

Then, read this
recipe all the way through before you start because its success depends on
doing several things at the same time--and having the ingredients prepped and
the utensils ready to go. It sounds a little more complicated than it actually
is, and the first time I made it I burst out laughing--it looked like I had
used every pan I owned. Now I've made it so often I don't even need the recipe
anymore!

You can use
more or less pasta and mushrooms and turkey--it doesn't really matter. An added
bonus--your kitchen will smell fantastic while this is cooking.

This serves
about 6-8 people-- and reheats beautifully. This is so delicious and decadent,
we look forward to this just as much as our holiday turkey.

Saute' in butter and chopped garlic...keep
warm, while at the same time you

Cook

*1/4 to ½
pound spaghetti or macaroni.

While this
is cooking,

Take the
leftover meat from your holiday turkey--shred it so you have

*two or
three cups shredded turkey

(I like
just using white meat--but it works with dark too)

Set aside
in a bowl large enough to allow you to add to it.

Okay, I
know this sounds complicated, but at the same time you're going to make a
sauce:

Melt

*3
Tablespoons butter

Sprinkle
with

*3
Tablespoons flour

Stir to
make a paste, then add (a little at a
time…)

*2 cups
chicken broth

Allow to
thicken...this will take about 15 minutes.

Remove from
heat, then stir in

*1 cup
heated whipping cream (fat-free half and half will also work)

*3
Tablespoons dry white wine

*salt and
pepper

Now

**Drain the
pasta, put it back into the pan and mix in the sautéed mushrooms. Add one half
of the sauce to this mixture.

**Add the
other half of the sauce to the bowl of shredded turkey.

**Put the
pasta and mushroom mixture in a greased baking dish. Make a hole in the center,
and

**put the
turkey/sauce mixture in the middle.

**Sprinkle
the top with

* grated
Parmesan cheese.

Bake till
lightly browned and cooked through...at least 20 minutes.

SO
delicious! You will not believe it. So--make a lot.

HANK: Well, now I’m hungry. But do
you have any turkey secrets? Leave a comment..and you’ll be entered to win the
Hank book of your choice: THE OTHER WOMAN, THE WRONG GIRL, or TRUTH BE TOLD! Remember to leave your email address so Hank can contact you if you win.

TRUTH BE TOLD begins with an all-too-familiar tragedy in today’s headlines: a middle-class family evicted from their home in the suburbs of Boston. In digging up the facts on this heartbreaking story—and on other foreclosures—reporter Jane Ryland soon learns the truth behind a big-bucks scheme and the surprising players who will stop at nothing, including murder, to keep their goal a secret.

Boston police detective Jake Brogan may have a liar on his hands. A man has confessed to the Lilac Sunday killing, a long-unsolved murder that haunted Brogan’s police-commissioner grandfather. While Jake’s colleagues take the confessor at his word, Jake is not so sure.

In the meantime, Ryland and Brogan’s paths are once-again intertwined—and as their private relationship heats up, it may mean difficulties in their professional lives.

Financial manipulation, the terror of foreclosures, the power of numbers, the primal need for home and family and love… What happens when everything you believe is true turns out to be a lie?

47 comments:

Good to see you here! Leftovers are a wonderful thing--oh, the possibilities! My family had slightly different issues cooking a turkey. It was always (every year!) either not cooked enough or overcooked. And that was with both my mother and grandmother watching it like hawks and poking it regularly. There is no such thing as a perfect turkey! It's a myth.

My husband smokes a lot of turkeys, using directions given to him over 30 years ago from a family friend who was a gourmet cook. He butters a piece of bread and cuts it in four pieces, plus adds a quartered apple and a quartered onion, and puts all this in the cavity before he starts cooking it. It isn't exactly stuffed, as there is still room inside the bird, but the result is a perfectly cooked and juicy bird, whether it's smoked or cooked in the oven.

Sheila, opening the oven and prodding the turkey is not conducive to a perfect turkey! It's better to put a sheet of foil over the bird, and leave it alone for about 80% of the cooking time, then remove the foil and let it brown, without opening the oven again.

Welcome Hank! Thanks for stopping by Mystery Lovers' Kitchen today. This dish is our favorite post-Thanksgiving Day meal! Of course in true Gourmet De-Lite fashion, I had to figure out how to take some of the calories out but I bet your version is even yummier! I also layer the turkey/pasta but next time I'm trying your method. Either way I am really looking forward to it!

The best part of turkey is leftovers! My husband even likes it as leftovers and he doesn't like the turkey dinner itself. I even make turkey hash with the potatoes, gravy, vegetables from the dinner---just add a little onion. Now I'm hungry for turkey----be sure to buy extra birds when they are on sale to put in the freezer for later.suefarrell.farrell@gmail.com

Up until this year I had jobs requiring me to work major holidays. I worked nights or evenings, so would go to a friend's house before for the meal, or when I moved back closer to my parents we'd have the full meal on whatever day off I had closest to the holiday.

Honestly, I've never cooked a turkey myself, since it's just me at home. If I want one my secret would be getting a meal already cooked by Wegman's (our grocery store)!

Thanks for the recipe! We're always looking for ways to use the leftover turkey. My husband cooks the turkey for the holidays, so I dn't have many tips. I do know in the past few years he bought the turkey peces separately so when the breast was done it could be taken ut and wouldn't get dry waiting for the legs to cook.

Running in, running in! Wow, have I had a day! I had an event HOURS away, and it started to SNOW! So we wondered--are they going to cancel? They didn't! And I didn't want to let anyone down, so we left early and slogged toward the library--maybe people would show up and I didn't want to disappoint them--and the snow started to get worse, and finally I got a call in the car saying--yikes! We have power outages ...Go home! So we turned around and drove home..and here I am.

ANd truly,I think the myth of turkey is that it's difficult to make I don't think it is! Key to remember--TAKE OUT that weird stuff that they hide inside. Gizzards and whatever. Gourmet cooks do things with it. And I do things with it, too--I throw it away. (Don't tell.) If you leave that pouch in, it SERIOUSLY affects the cooking time. And do not ask me how I know this.

Hank, great suggestion. I remember leaving those in one year and trying to figure out what the "plastic" smell was! LOL. My mother used to boil them and chop up all the giblets, then add to the gravy. She told me they were mushrooms so I wouldn't think, "ick."

But poking and prodding is a problem--I agree. I melt a whole bunch of butter, then soak several layers of cheesecloth in it. The I draped the buttery cheesecloth over the turkey. Put it in the preheated oven, .and LEAVE IT alone . Is';t it--twenty minutes a pound? I slather more butter on it every 40 minutes or so. It comes out gorgeously golden.

I make Turkey Tetrazzini the day after Thanksgiving every year. Love it. It is a great thing to do with the leftovers, besides sandwiches. I also like my turnkey a little dry. Every other member of the family does not.

Coming from the country where we have not had turkey meat available to us, or do not celebrate Thanksgiving, I adapted my chicken on the beer bottle recipe for Thanksgiving celebration in the USA =) The meat tastes awesome, comes out nicely golden and cooks faster than the turkey.(tatiana_lwg (at) yahoo.com )

I use butter and baste it a lot. Someone told me they drape their turkey in bacon and bake it that way. I tried that and all I wound up with was soggy bacon. Thank you for this awesome giveaway! areewekidding@yahoo.com

According to cooking genius Alton Brown, opening and closing the oven, even to baste, just lowers the temperature of the oven. Since he said that on his show, I no longer feel guilty for leaving the turkey alone, except for turning it once. And I cook a lot of turkey! We *never* have leftovers, though. I wish we did. Your Tetrazzini sounds wonderful! Glad that you're back safe and sound, Hank.

The recipe sounds delicious. One of our favorite things to do is make sandwiches of leftover turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving night but it's always great to have a new leftover recipe. Oh, and I really enjoyed The Wrong Girl. I'm looking forward to reading more of your books. Thanks! rencw@verizon.net

That is one of my favorites, which I learned in Home Ec in hight school 50 years ago. I am sure the addition of white wine will make it even tastier. Turkey secret is to toss an onion inside instead of stuffing. Make that in separate pan. Bobbipad at gmail.com

And some day can we talk about "convection"? We just got a new over, and I am terrified to use it. So funny--I had my turkey temp down pat in my old oven--but now, I have to learn this one's quirks. Dare I make a turkey?

I have no secrets to contribute but I do love to use leftover turkey, mushroom soup, noodles and plenty of cheese to make an easy casserole. Thanks for sharing your recipe!Conniecps1950 At gmail dot com

And that picture of turkey Tetrazzini doesn't look like mine--it was just he best photo I could find. Mine uses only white cheese. And it's so gorgeously golden brown. YUM! SOmetimes its tempting to take it out before it's browned, because it smells SO GOOD. But try to wait--the crispy chewy cheese is so worth it.

Oh Hank, the recipe is almost as intriguing as your books . . . sounds even better than the original Thanksgiving feast. I have made soup from the leftovers many times, but may have to divert some to this new recipe. Thanks!

My son-in-law is in charge of the turkey every year for Thanksgiving. He used to be out in the weather frying the turkey. Then I bought him an electronic turkey fryer to use inside. Now we have perfectly cooked turkey whether domestic or wild.Bettyjo.English@gmail.com

I love Tetrazzini too, & on the rare occasions when there's enough leftovers after sandwiches I make it using James Beard's version, which includes dry sherry, YUM! Will have to try your recipe, which seems less fiddly!

We have both turkey and ham when hosting the family, to appease the non-turkey eaters. And I sometimes use up the turkey carcass to make gumbo later. Now you've made me hungry for turkey, Hank!